Conceptual design framework highlights dynamic communication in autonomous vehicles, suggesting improvements for eHMIs involving external road actors.
External Human-Machine Interfaces (eHMIs) are key to facilitating interaction between autonomous vehicles and external road actors, yet most remain reactive and do not account for scalability and inclusivity. This paper introduces a conceptual design framework for adaptive eHMIs-interfaces that dynamically adjust communication as road actors vary and context shifts. Using the cyber-physical system as a structuring lens, the framework comprises three layers: Input (what the system detects), Processing (how the system decides), and Output (how the system communicates). Developed through theory-led abstraction and expert discussion, the framework helps researchers and designers think systematically about adaptive eHMIs and provides a structured tool to design, analyse, and assess adaptive communication strategies. We show how such systems may resolve longstanding limitations in eHMI research while raising new ethical and technical considerations.
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Tran et al. (2025) studied this question.
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